We are just a small group of 100% self funded volunteers backed by the Rotary Clubs of Albert Park and Fitzroy, who want to make a meaningful contribution to lifting the dental and overall health of the communities in Maubisse,Timor Leste.

 

Prevention is always better than a cure, so our philosophy is to educate the school children in the importance of brushing their teeth with fluoride toothpaste & giving their molar teeth a dose of concentrated fluoride every 6 months to try and reduce decay rates by up to 70%.

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In 2019 there will be 6 Australian / Timorese teams on the ground delivering much needed clinical treatment for free to reduce the pain and rampant dental disease.  However 6 weeks alone will not fix this problem, from January 2019 Solar Smiles will be employing a full time Oral Health Therapist called Savio, who will be based in Maubisse.  His job will be to deliver the ongoing prevention program in between Australian team visits to the 8 schools that Solar Smiles is responsible for in Maubisse.  We are hoping to expand his remit to help cover the 22 schools in the sub - district. 

 

We have committed for the next 3 years to provide an ongoing prevention program and full clinical program to approx 2000 children but there are 22,000 in Maubisse & they all need the ongoing supply of toothbrushes and fluoride toothpaste until they fully understand that it's worth spending money on these items.  It's very tough with 2 months of the year being called the hungry season where some community members will live on just eating boiled rice if anything.

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We are small but have big plans .... most of our fundraising comes from Bunnings BBQ's and Cakes Stalls at Bunnings Port Melbourne.  We also have some commercial sponsors for specific items and then rely on the goodness of individuals to help sponsor kids from $25.75/yr.

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Could you be one of our Oversea's Volunteer Hero's, a Sausage Flipper at Bunnings or even our next Baking Extraordinaire?  We can guarantee that 97% of all money raised gets directly to the ground in the use of treating our communities.